Why CDTS North & West for Your Project
CDTS North & West is the specialist hydroseeding contractor that Tier 1 main contractors, house builders, highways principals and rail clients call when a seeding package sits on the critical path and cannot fail.
We are not a general landscape firm with a hydroseeder bolted on. Seeding, erosion control and the ecology work that sits next to them are the only things we do, and we have been doing them on UK construction sites since 1991.
SEEDING SPECIALISTS
Most of what goes wrong on a seeding package traces back to four things: a contractor who cannot pass PQQ, a fleet that is hired and unavailable when programme moves, an operator who has not applied the product before, or a specification that was wrong before anyone arrived on site. CDTS is set up to remove each of those risks before they reach your project.
The Risks We Are Paid to Remove
1. Onboarding risk: ready to drop into a tender pack
CDTS North & West holds CHAS accreditation continuously, with full SSIP Approved Contractor status. RAMS, method statements, competency certificates and insurance documentation are written to drop straight into a contractor pre-qualification pack. Insurance is carried with AXA: £5 million public liability, £10 million employers liability, and £350,000 contractors all risks. Certificates are available on request.
The practical effect for procurement: a CDTS package can be onboarded onto your PQQ system without back-and-forth, and the documentation is the same shape as the documentation a Tier 1 buyer expects to see.
2. Mobilisation risk: an owned fleet, not a hire queue
Our fleet of six hydroseeders is owned outright and maintained on-farm. There is no plant hire dependency, which means your seeding date does not slip because someone else has the equipment required.
Conventional seedbed equipment sits alongside the hydroseeders: Aebi slope tractors for steep ground, Blec Turfmaker drills, power harrows, stone buriers and rotovators. The fleet exists so we never have to compromise on the right machine for the slope, the access or the ground.
3. Quality risk: direct employees, not agency labour
Operator skill has a measurable effect on application uniformity, hectares achieved per shift and germination outcomes. CDTS crews are direct employees and stay with the business. They understand soil chemistry, slope behaviour, weather windows and product specification, and they know the difference between an amenity grass mix on a housing POS and a BFM application on a 1:1 cut slope.
4. Specification risk: we will challenge a brief that does not fit the site
Most failed seeding jobs trace back to the wrong product, the wrong rate or the wrong window, not to the application itself. Before mobilisation we review your drawings, slope angles, ground conditions, programme and target outcome, and we will tell you if the specification will not perform. That conversation happens at quote stage, not after the first rainfall event.
What 30+ Years of UK Seeding Looks Like
CDTS North & West has been on UK construction sites since 1991. That track record converts into figures procurement teams can use:
30+ years
Of specialist UK seeding and erosion control
3,000+ projects
Completed across highways, rail, energy, housing, quarries, landfill and public sector schemes
10 million+
Square metres of ground seeded
350+ clients
Including Tier 1 main contractors, house builders, ecological consultancies and local authorities
2 million+
Trees established through direct tree seeding, a technique CDTS helped pioneer in the UK
Where Our Work Comes From
Most CDTS work comes from repeat clients and direct referrals. Recurring relationships include Balfour Beatty, Costain, Alun Griffiths, Murphy, Tilhill, Jones Bros Civil, Blackwells, FCC Environment, Highways England and the Environment Agency, on schemes covering highway and rail embankments, dam faces, sea defences, wind farm restoration, landfill capping and biodiversity net gain delivery.
Recent and current work includes hydroseeding 60+ hectares of new road embankments and verges on the Caernarfon Bypass for Tilhill, multiple phases of upland hydroseeding across 60 hectares at Clyde Windfarm in South Lanarkshire for Blackwells, and a 1km environmentally sensitive highway scheme at the A487 Machynlleth Bridge for Alun Griffiths involving hydroseeding, BFM erosion control, wildflower seeding and 15,000 trees across 5 hectares.
CDTS vs the Alternatives
When a seeding package goes to market, the practical choice is usually between three options.
FAQs for Procurement and Site Teams
Can CDTS work as a named subcontractor inside a Tier 1 civils package?
Yes. Most CDTS work is delivered as a named specialist subcontractor inside larger civils, highways or rail packages. We are familiar with NEC and JCT subcontract forms and our documentation drops into standard contractor pre-qualification systems.
How quickly can you be onboarded onto our supply chain system?
Because our CHAS accreditation, SSIP status, insurance certificates and template RAMS are kept current and ready to issue, onboarding is normally completed in days rather than weeks. We can usually return a populated PQQ within one working day of receiving the request.
What is your typical mobilisation lead time?
For straightforward works, we can typically be on site within 5 to 10 working days of instruction. For programme-critical erosion control, faster mobilisation is often possible. Spring and early autumn are the busiest windows, so the earlier you put a date in our diary, the more options we can offer.
What insurance cover do you carry?
We carry £5 million public liability insurance and £10 million employers liability insurance, both underwritten by AXA Insurance. Certificates are available on request.
Do you work on live highways, rail possessions and landfill sites?
Yes. We have extensive experience working on live highway schemes, within rail possessions, on capped landfills and across quarry restoration projects. Each job is delivered against a site-specific RAMS, and we work routinely for Tier 1 contractors on motorway, trunk road and rail infrastructure schemes.
What happens if our programme slips?
Because the fleet is owned and the crews are directly employed, we can usually re-sequence within our own programme rather than passing the slip back to a hire company. Talk to us as early as possible and we will rebook around the new window.
Where do you operate?
CDTS North & West is based at Alport Farm in Cheshire and operates across the whole of the UK. Recent and ongoing work has run from the Scottish Highlands and Cumbria down to the South East. Long-distance mobilisation is part of how the fleet is configured.
Send Us Your Drawings
Send us your drawings, your specification or just a description of the site. We will review access, slope, ground conditions and programme, recommend an approach, and give you a budget figure or a fixed quote. Most enquiries get a response within 24 hours.